Marc Bouchkov
Violin

Belgian violinist of Russian heritage, Mr. Bouchkov is a sophisticated musician of impeccable aplomb and has carved an international career performing with leading orchestras and conductors across Europe. He is one of the most multifaceted and unique artists of the new generation. His orchestral appearances include performances with the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, the HR-Sinfonieorchester and Christoph Eschenbach, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Philippe Jordan. He has also appeared with the NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Hessische Rundfunk Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI in Turin, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra among others, collaborating with conductors such as Stanislav Kochanovsky, Michael Sanderling, Andrey Boreyko, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Dmitry Liss, Christian Arming, Lionel Bringuier, Maxim Vengerov, James Judd, to name but a few.

As an active recitalist, Mr. Bouchkov has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Dresden Frauenkirche, Concert Hall of St. Petersburg, Tonhalle Zürich, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Paris’ Theatre de la Ville, Maison de Radio France, and the Konzerthaus in Berlin among several other venues. A fine chamber musician, he is a regular guest of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

Marc Bouchkov’s first recording by Harmonia Mundi is of special significance since it includes two world première pieces by Eugéne Ysaÿe, and two works composed by himself. The album was awarded a Diapason d’Or and a Diapason Découverte as well as nominated for the ICMA 2018 and received tremendous acclaim on Gramophone reviews. The English magazine featured him as “One to Watch “.

Recent and future highlights include concerts with Valery Gergiev and the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, Nikolaj Znaider and the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Stanislav Kochanovsky and the Hessische Rundfunk Orchestra, Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, as well as recitals and concerts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Schubertiade in Hohenems, Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, and in St.Petersburg, Zurich and Napoli.

Marc Bouchkov’s artistic development has been marked by a string of international awards. He won the first prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition and he is a silver medallist of the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition. He received the London Music Masters Award, and recently, he has been honored with the music prize of the Kulturstiftung Dortmund.

Marc Bouchkov was born into a family of violinists. He received his first lessons at the age of five from his grandfather. Studies with Claire Bernard and Boris Garlitsky followed. With Mihaela Martin, Marc developed as a Young Soloist in a postgraduate course at the Kronberg Academy. Since October 2018 he is under the musical tutorship of Eduard Wulfson.

Mr. Bouchkov currently serves as professor on the faculty of the Conservatoire Royale de Liège (BE) and the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein. From 2017 to 2019 he taught at the Kronberg Academy (DE) as Artistic Assistant.

Marc Bouchkov plays a Carlo and Michelangelo Bergonzi violin from 1742-44 as a private loan on behalf of Edwulstrad RMIC Ltd.

Alexander Ramm
Cello

“A mesmerizing, heroic soloist” (The Strad), Alexander Ramm is one of the most sought-after cellists of his generation. Having emerged on the international stage as the silver medalist of the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition, he has recently attracted much attention and critical praise with his recording of Benjamin Britten’s Cello Suites, which was made with titanium pins in his left elbow following a freak accident. Enthusiastic comparisons to Rostropovich (The Strad, Pizzicato.lu) and the Listeners’ Choice award of The Violoncello Foundation have placed this album among the most acclaimed recordings of cello repertoire.

Alexander’s regular collaborations with Vladimir Jurowski, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Jurowski, Antoni Wit, Alexander Sladkovsky and other prominent artistic partners have taken him to Philharmonie de Paris, London’s Cadogan Hall as well as to Linz’s Brucknerhaus, Amsterdam’s  Concertgebouw, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Tokyo’s Nikkei Hall and to many of the most prestigious stages in the UK, Germany, Lithuania, Sweden, Austria, Finland, South Africa, Japan, France and Russia, including Mariinsky Theatre and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.

Almost straight after the Tchaikovsky cello competition, Alexander was invited by legendary Russian Firma Melodia to record the Shostakovich concerto with the Tatarstan Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Alexander Sladkovsky.

Before Alexander’s success at the Tchaikovsky International Competition (Moscow, 2015), he won the Third Beijing International Music competition (Beijing, 2010) and First National Music Competition (Moscow, 2010). In 2013 Mr. Ramm became the first Russian laureate of the most prestigious Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki.

Alexander Ramm was born in Vladivostok, then moved to Kaliningrad and studied at Glière Children Music School (class of Svetlana Ivanova). He continued his education at Chopin College of Performing Arts in Moscow (class of Maria Zhuravlyova). In 2012 Alexander graduated from Moscow Conservatory (class of People’s Artist of the USSR Prof. Natalia Shakhovskaya,). Alexander also studied at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Frans Helmerson.

Generous support from the Amsterdam-based Schreve family and Ms. Elena Lukyanova in Moscow has allowed Alexander Ramm to own a cello made by the Cremonese luthier Mr. Gabriel Jebran Yakoub.

Mao Fujita
Piano

With an innate musical sensitivity and naturalness to his artistry, 21-year old pianist Mao Fujita has already impressed many leading musicians as one of those special talents which come along only rarely, equally at home in Mozart as the major romantic repertoire.
Born in Tokyo, Fujita was still studying at the Tokyo College of Music in 2017 when he took First Prize at the prestigious Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil in Switzerland, along with the Audience Award, Prix Modern Times, and the Prix Coup de Coeur, which first brought him to the attention of the international music community. He was also the Silver Medalist at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow where his special musical qualities received exceptional attention from the jury of leading musicians as well as Valery Gergiev who has invited him on a number of international tours since.

Fujita has been invited to appear in recital at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, at Verbier Festival as Academy Musician, and in the New Generation series at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Orchestral highlights include his London debut with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in 2019, and performances with top Japanese orchestras such as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.  In Tokyo in 2019, he jumped in a two days’ notice to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.2 with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev to rapturous acclaim.

Fujita’s breathtaking performance at the Tchaikovsky Competition in particular has earned invitations at the very highest level worldwide, and the 2020/21 season will see him make his debuts with the Munich Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras under the baton of some of the world’s most prestigious conductors such as Gergiev, Petrenko and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. In recital, Fujita appears at London’s Wigmore Hall, Schloss Elmau and next summer’s Verbier Festival where he will perform a complete cycle of the Mozart piano sonatas.  He will also make his debut at the Tsinandali and Riga-Jurmala Festivals in 2021.

Starting piano lessons at the age of three, Fujita won his first international prize in 2010 at the World Classic in Taiwan, and became a laureate of numerous national and international competitions such as the Rosario Marciano International Piano Competition in Vienna (2013), Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians (2015), and the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition (2016).